Than

TransCanada advised shippers Friday that due to forecasts ofwarmer than normal weather in the Eastern Delivery Area, diversionsand IT to the South West Delivery Area might be curtailed over theweekend and possibly into this week, depending on marketconditions. Diversions from Niagara and Chippewa would be excluded,the pipeline said.

While it ponders — based on open season results — building alarger project than originally intended, Georgia Strait CrossingPipeline Ltd. filed a preliminary environmental scoping submissionwith Canada’s National Energy Board to build and the planned gaspipeline to Vancouver Island. The company expects to file anapplication with the NEB this fall.

Less than a week after FERC approved part of its phase-twoexpansion of its storage caverns in Mississippi, Petal Gas StorageLLC has kicked off an open season to determine whether there’s ademand for another expansion.

Cash quotes again moved higher Monday but mostly in smallamounts of less than a nickel, reacting to new strength in the gas,crude oil and heating oil futures contracts and getting some extrasupport from colder weather in major northern market areas.

Fueled by a larger-than-expected storage withdrawal and promptedby gains in Wednesday night’s Access session, natural gas futuresclimbed higher yesterday as traders lifted prices in a briskafternoon buying surge. The March contract finished up 5.2 cents at$2.592, but the real story was the outer months, which gained 6cents or more on moderate position rolling.

Following a run of more than two weeks, MRT lifted effectiveSaturday the OFO that was put in place Jan. 19.

The Public Service Commission of Georgia (PSC) will vote thisweek on how to dispense the more than $30 million owed by AtlantaGas Light (AGL) to its customers. The utility accrued the extrafunds by over-collecting on the purchased gas cost section of thebill.

After raising its IT availability into the Zone 6-NYC pool to itshighest level in more than a month Tuesday (see Daily GPI, Jan. 11), Transco said that effectiveFriday there will be only about 25,000 dth/d of IT available throughthe Linden (NJ) Regulator Station and zero IT upstream of Station 90and on the Leidy Line for deliveries downstream of Centerville, NJ.

If convergence is what’s driving the energy industry, thenNiSource Chairman Gary Neale could be a good candidate to pilot theAmerican Gas Association into the new millennium. Neale is theAGA’s new chairman, but he’s also chairman of National ElectricityReliability Council, is on the board of directors of EdisonElectric Institute and spends his spare time attempting a hostiletakeover of Columbia Energy Group.